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Doink The Clown
After making appearances in late 1992 in the crowd and at ringside, playing tricks on the fans and wrestlers, the Doink character made his in-ring debut in the WWF in 1993, originally wrestling as a technically sound villain. Doink played cruel jokes on both fans and wrestlers in order to amuse himself and put them off guard. Some of his villainous pranks included tripping The Big Boss Man with a trip wire, dumping water on Marty Jannetty and attacking Crush with a loaded prosthetic arm. He clashed with Crush at WrestleMania IX, a match which he won after the appearance of an identical Doink (played by Steve Keirn) from underneath the ring. Doink also briefly feuded with Randy Savage on an early edition of Monday Night Raw, and Bret Hart, after substituting for an "injured" Jerry Lawler, at SummerSlam in 1993. Doink then turned on Lawler on the September 4 episode of WWF Wrestling Challenge in Lawler's The King's Court segment, making Burger King jokes to amuse the crowd and eventually hitting Lawler with a pie. Matt Osbourne, the original man behind Doink, was fired for re-occurring drug abuses, eventually leaving the gimmick (after bouncing through a few others) to Ray Apollo. Now as a fan favorite and with a new midget sidekick Dink, Doink encountered Lawler again the following year in a match at Survivor Series. In this match, Doink and Dink teamed with Wink and Pink to meet Lawler's dwarf team of 'little kings' Queazy, Cheezy, and Sleazy. As a fan favorite, Doink was more of a comic relief character, but continued to pull pranks on other wrestlers (albeit more harmless and silly than outright cruel), mostly villains such as Lawler and Bobby Heenan. Doink and Dink also battled with Bam Bam Bigelow and Luna Vachon in a feud that culminated at WrestleMania X. Doink soon became a jobber, regularly losing to wrestlers like Jeff Jarrett, Hakushi, Waylon Mercy and, in his final televised match in September 1995, to Triple H. Doink reemerged one last time in 1996 at the Slammy Awards and was attacked by Stone Cold Steve Austin, amidst crowd chants of "kill the clown". Since the abandonment of the gimmick, Doink has made random appearances in the next decade. He competed in the Gimmick Battle Royal at WrestleMania X-Seven. Chris Jericho dressed up as Doink when he attacked William Regal in April 2001. He showed up in the A.P.A. Bar Room Brawl at Vengeance in 2003. Doink was played by Nick Dinsmore and selected by Rhino to face Chris Benoit on July 31, 2003 edition of Smackdown!. He also fought Rob Conway on an October 2005 episode of Raw. On the June 2, 2007 edition of Saturday Night's Main Event, Doink (Steve Lombardi) teamed up with Eugene and Kane to defeat Umaga, Viscera, and Kevin Thorn. On Raw XV, the 15th-anniversary Raw special on December 10, 2007, Doink participated in the 15th Anniversary Battle Royal. Doink has also made sporadic appearances since then. On the July 12, 2010 episode of Raw, Doink (Steve Lombardi) teaming with William Regal, Primo, and Zack Ryder was defeated by the team of Santino Marella, Goldust, Vladimir Kozlov, and The Great Khali. The match was set up as a foil for guest host Florence Henderson who starred as Carol Brady in 70's sitcom The Brady Bunch. Doink was pinned by the Great Khali during the match. As a post-match celebration, The Great Khali picked her up and proceeded to make out with her while Santino and Goldust danced to Khali's music. On July 2, 2012, Doink, this time portrayed by longtime WWE veteran Steve Lombardi, aka The Brooklyn Brawler, made a surprise return and had a losing effort against Heath Slater in a match on Monday Night RAW. He then reappeared on the actual 1,000th episode on July 23 with other WWE Legends to again take down Slater. The original Doink, Matt Osborne, died on June 28, 2013. Category:Current Alumni Category:Deceased